WORLD : Ex-Spymaster on ‘Vacation’
East Germany’s former spymaster is in the Soviet Union vacationing and writing a book, not seeking political asylum as a state-run television station reported, friends and officials said today.
The TV report Wednesday night said Markus Wolf fled to the Soviet Union to evade imminent arrest on corruption charges.
Gregor Gysi, head of the East German Communist Party, labeled the report “nonsense,” and a close associate, Eberhard Meier, told the official East German news service ADN that Wolf went with his family on vacation to the Soviet Union on Feb. 12 and will return next week.
Wolf was chief of foreign intelligence in the Ministry of State Security for 30 years until he retired in 1987.
Last year, Wolf wrote a book called “Troika,” depicting his family’s enforced World War II exile in the Soviet Union and strongly supporting the Soviet policy of reform. The book criticized hard-line Stalinism.
But in recent weeks, Wolf had come under increasing criticism for his years of service as a colonel in the Stasi, East Germany’s hated secret police, and his links to former top Communist officials now charged with corruption.
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